An enduring childhood memory of mine is a warm dustbin.
In the fifties we had one of those galvanised metal dustbins and because of where it was situated at the rear of the house, it could become quite warm on a sunny day. I distinctly remember sitting on it one day, enjoying its warmth and wondering what the
future might hold. I was too young to be wondering about the future in any
profound sense, but in those days there was a good deal of optimism about in
spite of the austerity and colossal damage caused by WWII.
Flying cars, unlimited atomic power and a dazzling array of
domestic electrical gadgets from refrigerators to telephones, from televisions
to vacuum cleaners all seemed to promise a future far removed from the grey
fifties.
Yet although some of that post war promise has been
fulfilled in a material sense, the optimism has not been sustained. The establishment, major
bureaucracies, the media, the political classes and major charities all seem to
prefer an aura of pessimism underpinned by a deep sense that it is fashionable
and even desirable to be emotionally needy. It is equally fashionable to be emotionally needy on behalf of other people. Or even the environment. Or fish. Or anything really.
We see this in major projects such as climate change where demented
pessimism is the approved response. We also saw demented pessimism by the bucketful when
the UK electorate dared to be optimistic about a future outside the EU. We saw it and still see it in hysterical reactions to the election of Donald Trump. In a different sense we saw it in Jeremy Corbyn, a politician who personifies the endemic pessimism of modern political doom-mongers.
Of course there is nothing remotely new about doom-mongers,
but our modern versions seem intent on creating an emotionally needy population, one which thinks it needs more bureaucracy, more laws, more interference in
daily life. The optimism I glimpsed on that far off dustbin finds no favour
with the establishment. It had to go and to a large degree it has.
Yet ironically we should perhaps be pessimistic about the
intense and unrelenting promotion of political pessimism.
4 comments:
Yes, it's bizarre that there is so much pessimism. Sure, things have gone wrong and will continue to do so, but when you stand back there is clearly a concerted effort to encourage miserabilism.
We are even asked to get pessimistic about levels of pessimism. Childhood anxiety, self-harm, levels of mental illness, etc.; they want us to feel bad about feeling bad.
Recognising this fact, once you actually see it, is strangely uplifting.
I suppose we can all remember a conversation from the public bars usually, where everyone was pessimistic about everything. The regulars spent all their time moaning about something, and it took a few years to break away from that sort of negativity!
By coincidence, Mr H, I was only remembering yesterday, (while doing something which really needed a result), how the first company manager whom I really admired, came from a small firm just down the road from you...
He instilled a positive energy in everybody, and the pessimists were usually weeded out pdq!
Never forgotten him!
And then there is contrived reality, using firms and crisis actors.
Sam - it is strangely uplifting. To understand is to stand apart as Spinoza might have said.
Scrobs - yes, instilling a positive energy in everybody is what we want from any leader. The Labour party seems to have lost sight of that completely.
James - yes much of it is contrived and modern life makes that easier to do than it was when life was more basic.
Post a Comment